As is generally known, sterile surgical gowns are designed to greatly reduce, if not prevent, the transmission through the gown of liquids and biological contaminates which may become entrained therein. In surgical procedure environments, such liquid sources include the gown wearer's perspiration, patient liquids such as blood, salvia, perspiration and life support liquids such as plasma and saline.
Many surgical gowns were originally made of cotton or linen and were sterilized prior to their use in the operating room. These gowns, however, permitted transmission or "strike-through" of many of the liquids encountered in surgical procedures. These gowns were undesirable, if not unsatisfactory, because such "strike through" established a direct path for transmission of bacteria and other contaminates to and from the wearer of the gown. Furthermore, the gowns were costly, and, of course, laundering and sterilization procedures were required before reuse.
Disposable surgical gowns have largely replaced linen surgical gowns. Because many surgical procedures require generally a high degree of liquid repellency to prevent strike-through, disposable gowns for use under these conditions are, for the most part, made entirely from liquid repellent fabrics.
In some surgical procedures where the risk of insult to the surgical gown is low, surgical gowns having cuffs formed from liquid pervious or liquid absorbent fabrics may provide adequate protection for the wearer. However, in other surgical procedures where the risk of insult to the surgical gown is high, additional protection may be required. In some instances, to provide additional protection a glove is worn which is of sufficient size to overlap the cuff and a portion of the sleeve.
However, when the sleeve cuff is formed from liquid retentive fabrics and is over-gloved by a surgical glove, perspiration may collect in the cuff. As the amount of perspiration retained in the cuff increases, the perspiration may migrate to the cuff/glove interface. Furthermore, the wearer's hand and arm movement may cause the retained perspiration to migrate beyond the cuff and into the portion of the sleeve adjacent the cuff. Strike-through may then occur when a liquid generated during the surgical procedure contacts the portion of the sleeve occupied by the migrated perspiration.
Additionally, in instances where the wearer's perspiration has not migrated beyond the glove but has saturated or soaked the cuff material, there still remains the risk of the wearer being contacted by a liquid generated during the surgical procedure. This is so because, such a liquid on the outer surface of the gown sleeve may travel down the sleeve and contact the perspiration laden cuff before or during the removal of the glove and or gown.
In other instances, surgical gowns used in high insult surgical procedures may also be provided with cuffs formed from liquid repellent materials. However, liquids, generated during surgery which by-pass the glove and reside on the gown sleeve may contact the wearer during removal of the gown and or glove.
Therefore, there exists a need for surgical gowns and particularly surgical gown sleeves which provide improved barrier protection and particularly improved barrier protection for the wearer's wrist while at the same time avoiding the problems associated with conventional sleeve and cuff designs.